This is a borderline issue of the Daily Planet.  It is relatively hate free.  There is a commentary by Virginia Bowning calling a certain unnamed faction in the upcoming KPFA election liars and rats.  However, we might generously regard that as normal KPFA trash talk, rather than hate speech.  There is also a conspiracy theorist, Michael Bauce, who believes that swine flu was genetically engineered on purpose so that drug companies could make money from selling their vaccine.  This nuttiness—without any evidence provided, by the way—does not deserve to be published, even in the name of the First Amendment.  But, more importantly, and quite apart from whether every wacko theory requires print, this letter very actively should not have been published at all.  This is because the author goes on to state that the vaccine is tainted with toxins and that people should therefore not have it.  This is tantamount to yelling “fire” in a crowded theater.  It is not protected free speech.  O’Malley was reckless for publishing this, jeopardizing the very lives of her very gullible aging hard left readership.  If there is a swine flu epidemic amongst Berkeley’s radicals, you may guess why.  But we grant that the missive in question was only nutty and not hateful.